Guild-y as Sin: Sloth Trivia Quiz

Answer: David Byrne

Born in Dumbarton, Scotland, in 1952, Byrne fronted the new wave band Talking Heads between 1974 and 1991. After leaving Talking Heads, his career developed other strands, including photography, film and opera. Although never chart toppers (their best UK placing was number six for "Road To Nowhere" in 1985, while "Burning Down the House" made it to number nine in the USA in 1983), the band was noted for its progressive musicianship. Byrne has picked up Oscar and Grammy awards and collaborated with that other great musical techno wiz, Brian Eno.

darksplash

Answer: Hamlet

Hamlet has been well described as "The Melancholy Dane." While I guess it would be possible to be melancholic and not be slothful, the two attributes do seem to go together.

patricck

Answer: Karma

"Karma" can mean the way in which one's actions determine who one is and will be, as well as the store of good and bad actions accumulated over past lives. The consequences of our past actions bind us our existence in this world and to reincarnation. But, action is inevitable, and inaction is impossible, because anything you do-- whether you choose to take a certain course of action or choose not to-- counts as an action. How then can you ever hope to escape the consequences of your actions, and the endless cycle of death and rebirth that results from them? One revelation Krishna presents to Arjuna in the Bhagavad-Gita is that one can escape the bondage of action by renouncing the fruits, or consequences, of the action. How can you renounce the consequences of your actions, you ask? For that, you'll have to read the Bhagavad-Gita!

pu2-ke-qi-ri

Answer: John Leguizamo

In the first film, Sid is left behind when all the other animals start migrating south. Sid was sleeping (as a sloth does). When he awoke, he caused several mishaps before he was saved by Manny the Mammoth, voiced by Ray Romano. Together, they journey south, saving a human child from a pack of sabre-tooth tigers along the way. Denis Leary voices the tiger, Diego, and Chris Wedge is the voice of Scrat, the sabre-toothed squirrel.

SilverMoonsong

Answer: Benjamin Franklin

Franklin (1706-1790) was a politician and scientist, among many other titles. He also coined phrases like "Time is money" and "There never was a good war or a bad peace".

GreenGal

Answer: Turn their heads approximately 270 degrees

As opposed to humans (and giraffes for that matter), who have seven vertebrae, three-toed sloths have nine, enabling them to turn their heads approximately three quarters of a circle. Three-toed sloths do not have incisors, so they can't hang from trees by their teeth, even if they felt inclined to.

Quiz_Beagle

Answer: 84, Charing Cross Road

"84, Charing Cross Road" by Helene Hanff is a story told in letters over twenty years of correspondence between an American writer and the staff of a second-hand bookshop. The book has been made into a play, several radio broadcasts and a film. I commend it to anyone that hasn't read it. All the wrong answers are also epistolary books (in the form of letters).

Quiz_Beagle

Answer: Cymbeline

"Cymbeline" is one of the Bard of Avon's lesser-known plays, and that's a pity, because this dark comedy set in ancient Britain is loaded with marvelous characters (among them a wicked stepmother, a virtuous heroine, a scheming philanderer, kidnapped princes, and imperious Romans). The title character, Cymbeline, is based on an actual person - Cunobelinus who ruled southeast Britain from 10 to 41 AD from his capital Camulodunum (present-day Colchester). Shakespeare's sources for "Cymbeline" were Holinshed's Chronicles and Boccaccio's "Decameron".

Cymruambyth

Answer: Rain forest house

RaINFOReSThOUSe. Sloths live in trees in rainforests. They are native to South and Central America.

Quiz_Beagle

Answer: Megatherium

Many complete megatherium skeletons have been found and can be seen in museums around the world. The animals could reach twenty feet (six metres) in length and five tons in weight. They were primarily vegetarian, but may also have eaten meat obtained by scavenging. Dating of fossils suggest that the genus survived for several million years until about 10,000 BC/BCE.

TabbyTom